After a successful road trip with some proud poppas, it was time to head back home and play the first of a back to back with a few teams from New York. First up it’s the surprising Islanders, who have earned a playoff spot at this stage.

The Hawks make short work of the boys from Long island scoring 2 goals in the first period, both off the stick of Jonathan Toews. Marian Hossa added two more in the second to finish of the Isle 4-1. Next stop it’s a quick flight to MSG to face the Rangers on Wednesday night. There was one negative that came out of Tuesday night’s victory, however. Andrew Shaw was given a game misconduct for head butting that will probably be reviewed by the league.

Nick Leddy did make the trip to Chicago but did not dress to face his old mates as he is just coming back from injury. Continue reading »

The Chicago Blackhawks broke open a tight contest in San Jose Saturday afternoon, scoring four goals in the final 20 minutes. Behind a pair of goals from Patrick Sharp, Chicago wound up 6-2 winners over the Sharks.

First Period-Ben Smith, now on the Sharks, collected a mishandled puck off the stick of Kimmo Timonen and fed Barclay Goodrow coming down the left side in the third minute. Corey Crawford gloved the attempt to snuff out a decent scoring chance. San Jose fired the game’s first ten shots in the early going and Crawford was a big reason that the Hawks weren’t in a hole after the barrage.

A Bryan Bickell holding penalty at 3:46 gave San Jose an early power play. Logan Couture appeared to convert early in the man advantage but Joe Pavelski was ruled to have made contact with Crawford in the blue paint and the goal was disallowed.Continue reading »

Glendale, Arizona was the first stop for the Hawks as they visited a majority Blackhawks fan partisan crowd of 17,534 at Gila River Arena.

Andrew Shaw and Brad Richards ended two long goal scoring droughts and Corey Crawford was stopped 17 of the 18 shots he faced in a 2-1 win over the NHL’s 3rd-worst team by record.

The game also marked Antoine Vermette’s return to Arizona for the first time since being traded to Chicago on March 2nd. The Coyotes got the Blackhawks’ first-round draft choice this coming June, and defenseman Klas Dahlbeck back in return for Vermette’s services. So, it was Dahlbeck’s first chance to perform against the team that drafted him 79th overall in the third round of the 2011 NHL Draft.

Dahlbeck is also on the Coyotes’ first penalty kill unit, a unit that had not surrendered a power play goal against in the four games since Dahlbeck joined their team.Continue reading »

After a weekend dealing with wild rumors of off-ice turmoil and supposed discord, the Blackhawks took to the ice on Monday with a couple of new faces and minus another. A United Center crowd announced as 21,641 watched the ‘Hawks cruise to a 5-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.

The win pushed the Hawks to five points up on Winnipeg in the Central Division and eight on the Minnesota Wild. If the playoffs were to begin today, the Hawks would finish 3rd in the Central and face the Blues in the first round. Winnipeg would play Nashville and Minnesota would cross over into the Pacific Division bracket by way of finishing second in the Wild Card standings. Chicago is still four points back of St. Louis and the Blues have a game in hand on them.

Jonathan Toews notched his 20th and 21st goals of the season as the Hawks easily dissected the Hurricanes defense. Brandon Saad kept pace with the Captain, scoring his 20th midway through the second after a solid Patrick Sharp forecheck that created a Carolina turnover. Marcus Kruger (6th) and Marian Hossa (18th) would round out Chicago’s scoring. Corey Crawford made 27 saves in earning his 25th win on the campaign.

The Chicago Blackhawks found the tables turned on them in Tampa Bay Friday night. After shutting out the Panthers the night before, a tired Hawks squad was blanked by the Lightning’s Ben Bishop. Chicago leaves Florida following a 4-0 loss.

First Period-Joakim Nordstrom was taken down by Ondrej Polat just 1:04 into the contest, though Chicago couldn’t find the mark with the power play. Other than a couple of rebounds on that man advantage, neither team had much offense in the first five minutes.

Scott Darling, in goal for the Blackhawks, stopped a couple of redirect attempts in the sixth minute before the Lightning got caught with too many men on the ice. A Partick Sharp turnover put Chicago on its heels early in the power play and another opportunity to draw first blood slipped away.Continue reading »

The reinsertion of Teuvo Teravainen into the Blackhawks’ lineup in the wake of Patrick Kane’s regular-season ending broken collarbone surgery proved to be a difference maker, at least for one night.

Teravainen scored on his first shift of the game on Thursday night and Corey Crawford returned to the nets to make 20 saves and post his 12th career regular season shutout in a 3-0 defeat of the Florida Panthers before an announced crowd of 17,387 fans (mostly Blackhawks fans) at BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida.

The Blackhawks defense and backchecking was in top form, limiting Florida to just five shots through the initial 31 minutes of Thursday’s rematch of the Hawks 3-2 shootout-deciding victory two nights before at United Center. Tuesday’s contest saw the Hawks take a 2-0 lead into the third period only to see the Panthers force extra hockey.

Joel Quenneville made one other lineup change from Tuesday’s game. It came as a surprise in that most people expected Dan Carcillo to draw back in as a response to Alex Petrovic’s push that has put Kane out of action for approximately three months. Instead, Quenneville scratched veteran Michal Rozsival for Tim Erixon, who had played in just six games since being acquired for Jeremy Morin in mid-December. Erixon was appearing in his first game action since January 18th against Dallas, a 6-3 Hawks’ loss at home.Continue reading »

After suffering an embarrassing loss on home ice against the Bruins on Sunday afternoon, the Blackhawks shifted the focus on Tuesday to the Florida Panthers, who are battling for a playoff spot, and would love to take full advantage of a depleted Hawks squad.

Scott Darling was recalled from Rockford on Sunday night with Joakim Nordstrom. Ryan Hartman and Antti Raanta were sent back down to what seemed to be a salary type move. Which can only mean one thing. Nothing, it means nothing. Darling was then signed to a 2 year contract extension.

Darling was also named the started for this game helping the Hawks edge the Panthers 3-2 in a shootout. Jonathan Toews and Kris Versteeg were the goal scorers with Patrick Sharp lending a hand in the shootout. This would be the last game for this 8 game home stand recording 3-3-2.Continue reading »

The Chicago Blackhawks came up with a cringe-worthy effort against the visiting Boston Bruins Sunday afternoon. Boston chased Corey Crawford from the crease and dominated in all phases of the game.

The Blackhawks were soundly defeated, losing 6-2 in front of a national audience on NBC. With the loss, Chicago is now 2-2-3 on a home stand that looked to be full of winnable games a couple of weeks ago.

First Period-Boston was the first to score three minutes into the game. Patrice Bergeron got behind Michael Rozsival at the left post and was right there to take a backhanded feed from Reilly Smith.Continue reading »

The Chicago Blackhawks had responses for the visiting Detroit Red Wings on two occasions Wednesday night. However, the Hawks came up one response short after a nip-and-tuck affair that ended with Detroit taking the game 3-2 in a shootout.

First Period-Detroit nearly got a puck past Corey Crawford in the first 15 seconds on a shot by Tomas Tatar. Patrick Kane got off an attempt that was stopped by Jimmy Howard before Kane sent the rebound high of the net. Bryan Bickell had a nice chance from the left circle a few moments later by Howard made the stick save.

Bickell was called for slashing 9:15 into the period, putting the Red Wings on the man advantage. Late in the penalty, Marian Hossa entered the Detroit zone and hit Brandon Saad for a shorthanded opportunity. Saad was hooked by Justin Abdelkader, giving the Hawks a shot at some power play time. Kane and Brent Seabrook had several whacks at Howard. Although Chicago held the offensive zone for most of the time and sent nine shots Howard’s way, the puck remained out of the Red Wings net.Continue reading »

Another somber Sunday morning for the Chicago Blackhawks and the hockey world. Steve Montador, once a part of the Hawks organization, was found dead at his home at the age of 35. This would be the second untimely death for the Blackhawks family in months.

The Hawks would rise up to the occasion once again, though, winning one for Stevie in a shootout 2-1 against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Patrick Sharp took the winning shot with Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane up to their old tricks, pulling some sweet moves in the shootout to take their second win in a row.

Corey Crawford has no doubt returned back to his form before his injury, stopping 37 of 38 Penguins shots. He even made a beautiful right pad save late in the second period. Marc Andre Fleury was sharp for the Penguins and showed frustration after letting Sharp’s winning snipe in.

Michal Rozsival returned to the lineup after missing one game with an upper body injury. Kyle Cumiskey along with Ryan Hartman would be back for their second straight game. This spelt bad news for David Rundblad who took this morning off. Ben Smith was back in just after the warm ups meaning Dan Carcillo was also sitting for this one.Continue reading »